Knitting apparatus



April 13, 1937. D YOUNG 2,076,929

KNITTING APPITARATUS Filed March 16, 1934 fzzlenzor:

. more particularly to improvements in the method Patented Apr. 13, 1937PATENT OFFICE UNITED STATES .David H.

KNITTING APPARATUS Young, Philadelphia, Pa., assignor to Artcrai'tSilkHoslery Mills, Inc., Philadelphia, Pa., a corporation, of Delaware fApplication March 16, 1934, Serial No. 715,854 2 Claims. (01. 66-126)This invention relates to knitted hosiery and of and apparatus forknitting the same.

It has been recognized by those familiar with the hosiery art that it isoften' the case in knitting hosiery-from a single lengthof yarn thatshadows,

rings and other such disfiguring conditions are the thickness, weight ordenier of one yarn are present in the finished stocking, ,this being dueprimarily .to variations in the weight, thickness and denier of the yarnemployed. .Natural silk yarn is particularly subject to these variationsbecause it isdiflicult, if, not impossible, to control the work ofthesilk worm as to insure the production of a substantially uniformfilament of silk. It frequently occurs that in a continuous length'ofsilk yarn successive portions thereof are of different thicknesses withthe result that when two or more successive courses of a knitted fabricare lmitted of a portion of the yarn which varies from the averageweight or denier thereofa shadow, stripe or ring efiect is produced inthe fabric. Of course, if the variations in weight or denier of the silkyarn were distributed through out the stocking fabric in such mannerthat no two or more successive courses were. knitted of yarn of the sameweight or thicknesses, the ob-- jectionable condition above referred towould not be obtained. While various attempts have been made from timeto time to remedythis objectionable condition, noneof them have beenentirely satisfactory and it is accordingly among the objects of thepresent invention to obviate the foregoing objections by the provisionof an entirely new methodof knitting a hosiery fabric in which a singlecarrier is employed for laying a pair of yarns along the needles of theknitting machine, it being a characteristic feature of this inventionthat the two yarns thus fed by the" single yarn carrier are laid uponthe sinkers and dividers in substantially parallel relation in such"manner that together they form a single course of the knitted fabric in"which any variations in largely ofiset by counterbalancing variationsin the thickness, weight or denier of the other yarn.

A further object of the invention is to knit a hosiery-fabric of twoyarns arranged in substantially parallel relation, each yarn being socomplemental to the other inweight, thickness and denier as to produce afinished fabric of uniformly. 'even texture wherein rings, shadows,

stripes and other such objectionable conditions are substantiallyeliminated.

Still another object of the invention is to provide amethod of andapparatus for knitting a hosieryfabric in such manner that each coursethereof is composed of two separate yarns arranged in substantiallyparallel relation, each yarn being delivered from a separate cone andthe two yarns being commonly delivered by a singlethread carrier to asubstantially common point immediately in advance of the knittingneedles.

bination, construction and relative arrangement of parts, as well as inthe method of employing the same, all as will appear more fullyhereinafter, v

as shown in the accompanying drawing, and as finallypointed out in theappended claims.

. In the accompanying drawing:-

Figure 1 is a perspective view of a portion of I a knitting machine inwhich the thread carrier as constructed in accordance with the presentinvention is e oyed;

' Figure 2-is a perspective-view or the improvedyarn carrier;

Figures 8 and are transverse sectional viewstaken along the lines 33 and44 respectively of Figure 2;

. Figure 5 is a side elevational view of the thread carrier;

Figure 6 shows a stocking knitted by the method of and with the threadcarrier of the present invention, the encircled portion being anenlargement of the knitted fabric;

Figure '7 is a view of the lower portion of the yarn carrier showing amodified construction thereof; and

Figure 8 is a sectional view' taken on the line 8-8 of Figure 7.

Referring now more/particularly to Figure 1, it will be observed thatthe thread carrier ill of the present invention is shown applied to afullfashioned hosiery knitting machine the type comprising the unsualsinker bed I l the alternately disposed sinkers l2 and the dividers l3.The needles ll of the machine are respectively disposed between theforwardly extending extremities ii of the sinkers and dividers.

Inasmuch as the operation of the knitting machine has not been alteredin any respect by the present invention, it is not believed necessaryfor the purpose of the'present invention to describe such operation indetail, it being. understood that the construction of the machine andits operation, except for the thread carrier III, are conventional. Theyarn carrier l0, which is adapted to move longitudinally of the sinkerbed to lay the yarn upon the sinkers and the dividers'along the needlesI4, comprises a main body which is of gradually decreasing width fromthe upper toward the lower end thereof. The upper portion I6 of the yarncarrier is bent upwardly, as at H, and is provided at its upperextremity with a pair 01' oppositely extending apertured ears i8 forsecuring the carrier to the longitudinally reciprothe carrier isproperly mounted upon its recip-' rocabie suppotting bar the saidportion l9 thereof presents itself immediately in advance of theknitting head of the machine which is composed of the needles l4, thesinkers l2 and the dividers l3.

Formed in the upper portion l6 of the carrier ID are a pair of laterallyspaced substantially parallel grooves 20 and 2|, these grooves extendingpreferably from the upper edge of the carrier to points just beyond theupper bend l1 thereon Suitably fixedwithin the grooves 20 and 2| are apair of upper yarn guide tubes 22 and 23 the lower extremities of whichrespectiveiy terminate short of the lower ends of the grooves 20 and 2I.

Formed in the lower portion of the carrier is a groove 24 having "theupwardly extending diverging sections 25 and 26. Secured to the carrierimmediately above the upper extremities of the divergent portions25 and26 of the groove 24 are a pair of laterally spaced yarn guiding eyes 21and 28, while provided in the lower extremity or throat of the groove 24is a centrally disposed yarn separator 29. Fitted within the lowerportion IQ of the carrier is the bottom yarn guide which may be in theform of a single tube 60 (see Figure 2) or in theform of a pair of smalldiameter tubes 3| and 32 arranged in parallel relation (see Figure '7)The operating characteristics of the yarn carrier as just described isessentially the same as the conventional yarn carriers insofar as itsreciprocation along the knitting head of the machine is concerned. Itdiffers, however, from the conventional yarn carrier in that it deliverstwo yarns to the knitting head of the machine instead of the single yarnof the conventional yarn carrier. The yarns which are so delivered bythe present dual yarn carrier are obtained from separate cones suitablymounted upon the knitting machine. The separate yarns so obtained fromthe two cones are designated in the drawing as a and b, it beingunderstood that these yarns a and b are preferably as substantiallyidentical as it is possible to obtain under carefully supervised andcontrolled silk worm production and subsequent spinning operations.Also, it will be understood that in the knitting of a fabric of certainweight, each of the yarns a and b are of such weight that combined theyproduce the desired weight of knitted fabric. Thus, each of the twoyarns may be of the same numberof threads or one yarn may be of agreater number of threads than the other.

Inasmuch as it is extremely unlikely for the yarnof one cone to exactlymatch linearly through its length any unevenness in character of theyarn of the second cone, it will be apparent that by running the twoyarns together through the same carrier the average weight, thickness ordenier of the combined yarns will be quite uniform throughout each ofthe entire knitted fabric, thereby eliminating largely, if not entirely,the cause of shadows, rings and the like appearing in the finishedfabric and making possible the production of a fabric of uniform texturethroughout. Also, the use oftwo yarns laid side by side along theneedles to form each of the interlooped knitted courses of the fabricreduces very; materially the liability of runs occurring, because itwill require the breaking through of two yarns at any point before a runcan occur.

In the use of the above described yarn carrier, the yarns a and b arerespectively threaded through the guide tubes 22 and 23 and the guideeyes 2'! and 26, the yarn a being further 'maintained in separatedrelation from the yarn b by the divergently arranged guide grooves 25and 26 and by the separator 29 located in the throat of the commongroove 24, the two yarns being finally delivered to the knitting head ofthe machine through the bottom yarn guide of the carrier. By'somaintaining the two yarns in separated relation, it has been found thatthe yarns are maintained in a substantially common plane and donot'become twisted together or otherwise displaced relatively to eachother during the knitting operation; and that the knitted fabric, suchas is shown in an enlarged scale in the insert of Figure 6, is extremelyuniform in its texture and entirely free from disfiguring shadows,rings, lines and the like.

A characteristic of the fabric knitted in accordance with the presentinvention is the entirely different effect which is produced by employing two or more separate and independent yarns in each knitted course,it having been observed, for example, that when a pair of Z -threadyarns is so employed as against a single 4-thread yarn, the knittedfabric has the appearance of having been knitted of a single yarn oflarger diameter than that of a 4-thread'yarn. This is apparently due tothefact that 'when a. plurality of yarns are employed in each coursethere results an apparent enlargement of the yarns which is not had whena single yarn is employed, in consequence of which there is obtained amore uniform distribution and appearance of the yarn through-'- out thestocking fabric. The effect is substantially the same as when arelatively heavy yarn is employed, yet the fabric produced in accordancewith the present invention and composed,

, for example, "of a pair of 2-thread yarns is at least as sheer andsmooth and of as fine texture as can be obtained by the use of a single4- thread yarn.

While the thread carrier of the present, invention has been shown anddescribed as having provision for delivering only two separated yarns tothe knitting head of the machineit will be obvious to those skilled inthe art that by increasing the number of guide tubes and grooves in thecarrier the latter may be constructed to deliver more than just twoyarns to the needles.

It will be understood, therefore,.that the invention is susceptible ofvarious such changes and modifications from time to time, all with-' outdeparting from the real spirit or general principles thereof, and it isaccordingly intended to claim thesame broadly, as well as specifically,as indicated by the appended claims.

What is claimed as new and useful is:-

1. In a yarn carrier of the character described, a main body memberprovided with an elongated yarn-receiving groove having divergentportions which merge at the delivery end of the member to form a singlethroat, and a yarn separating member located in said throat formaintaining in separated relation a plurality of yarns passing throughsaid throat and to insure their issuance from said delivery end of themember in intimately associated substantially parallel relation.

2. A yarn carrier of the character described comprising, in combination,a main body memher having a yarn delivering lower extremity which isadapted for disposition operatively in proximity to the knitting head ofa knitting machine, a pair of yarn guiding tubes arranged in the upperend of said member in laterally spaced parallel relation, said memberbeing providedwith a yarn guiding groove having divergent upperextremities for respectively receiving in separated relation a pair ofyarns delivered through said guiding tubes, said groove being downwardlyconvergent to provide a single restricted throat

